Filtering by Category: Yoga

I'm sure you've seen tutorials for DIY calming jars and glitter bottles floating around Pinterest. I've made these for Stella since she was a baby and, after a particularly long day, I find myself shaking them up and watching the glitter fall right alongside her. They really are relaxing!

If you're joining us for SPACE YOGA, you'll get to see the ones we made in person. If you can't make it or if you want to make your own to bring to class, I've included instructions! Just click the image below:

And…if you want a sneak peek of the book we're reading for our SPACE class, take a gander at SPACE BOY by Leo Landry.

This post may contain affiliate links, but I only link to products I recommend and have tried/used myself.

I really enjoy instructing chair pose in classes with younger children: not only is it a beneficial pose for kids and adults to practice (because it simultaneously strengthens AND stretches), but it also engages the imagination. Kids can imagine the type of chair in which they're sitting and use this creativity to focus more on how they feel within the posture.

To practice chair pose: begin standing up tall with your feet together, with your big toes touching. Beginners can stand with their feet hip-distance apart. Inhale and raise your arms above your head, then exhale as you bend your knees, bringing your thighs as parallel to the floor as they can get. Your knees will project out slightly over your feet and your torso will form approximately a right angle over your thighs. Reach your arms out in line with your spine and lift through your heart. Shift weight into your heels (and test yourself by trying to lift your toes off the mat). Breathe slowly and steadily, finding a focal point between your hands.

Demonstrating chair pose using mini-pumpkins as a focal point

In last month's Yoga & Story Time sessions, we took chair pose to the next level and actually used this posture to create artwork! You can create a chair pose painting too with some simple items, at least two people, and some focused yoga energy!

Materials Needed:

We provided paint shirts and baby wipes just in case of accidents, but no one needed either! This is a fun mess-free activity...even while using paint!

Large Cardboard Box

Scissors

Scotch Tape

Art Paper or Construction Paper

Washable Tempera Paint

Small Rolling Items that can get Messy! (We used pie pumpkins, but you could also use golf balls, pine-cones, potatoes, etc.)

Instructions:

Measure the bottom of your cardboard box and cut a piece of art paper to fit inside. Affix the paper to the box by using scotch tape around the edges.

Take your washable paint, and randomly place small blobs of paint on the paper. Use various colors.

Place your rolling items inside the box with the paint and pick up the box, one person on each side.

In order to make the rolling items move, each person will take turns doing chair pose: the first person will bend their knees in chair to make the items roll to that side. Then the next person will do chair pose to make the items roll to the opposite side.

As you take turns performing chair pose, the items will roll over the paint to make a design. You can also rotate the box to create designs over all areas of the paper.

Once you like the design, simply leave it in the box until it dries!

Here's one of the chair paintings we made at Yoga & Story Time:

If you decide to create your own chair painting, I would LOVE to see it! Email me a photo at lindsay@lindsaybayer.net.

DISCLAIMER: the yoga discussed in this post has the likelihood to make you extremely hungry. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

July’s Yoga and Story Time classes were very food focused. In addition to reading the book FAT CAT by Margaret Read MacDonald (which explores the comical items that a very hungry cat gobbles up), participants focused on transforming their bodies into different types of snacks through yoga poses. While the book we read was focused on the overall act of eating, there are so many great picture books that are quite pose-specific.

Outlined below is a sampling of some food-focused poses we practiced, along with books that would be a great accompaniment to each pose. See if you can find these books at your local library or head on over to amazon.com, then read and practice the complementary pose - maybe close to your child’s snack time!

YOGA PIES (Staff Pose Variation)

READ:FAT CAT is the book we used in class. It features a busy mouse that makes 35 pies, and a hungry cat that eats them all! HOW TO MAKE AN APPLE PIE AND SEE THE WORLD is another great option that takes readers on a global adventure and also includes a pie recipe.

PLAY: In this activity, you’ll start in traditional staff pose but you’ll need to imagine that there’s a shelf above your head with all the ingredients you need to make a pie and at your ankles is a big mixing bowl. Have your child name an ingredient that’s needed for the pie (apples, peaches, pecans, sugar, flour, etc.). Inhale and reach your arms up, imagining that you’re grabbing the ingredient from the shelf. Then exhale and bend at the hips, reaching down to deposit the ingredient into the imaginary mixing bowl. Repeat for all the ingredients you can think of, ending by grabbing an imaginary spoon and stirring all the ingredients in the imaginary bowl.

Here are some friends below making their yoga pies:

YOGA BANANAS (Standing Side Bend)

READ:BANANAS IN MY EARS is not a book exclusively about bananas, but it is a great book of nonsense poetry that kids and adults will treasure. For Richard Scarry fans, his book FLOATING BANANAS is another great option, but I believe this book may be a bit difficult to get your hands on…so check your library!

PLAY: To become bananas, we simply modify the traditional side bend by “peeling” one arm down to our sides, then reaching over with the raised arm. Then we bring our “bananas” back together, before peeling the other side.

This photo gives you a better idea:

YOGA POPCORN (Mountain, to Chair, to Star)

READ:THE POPCORN BOOK is not only written by one of my favorite children’s authors, Tomie de Paola, but is also a wonderful and engaging nonfiction picture book that investigates one of my all-time favorite snacks.

PLAY: Starting in mountain pose, inhale and bend your knees coming into chair pose. Instead of bringing your arms overhead in chair, bring your palms together in front of your chest. Then, as you exhale, pop your body out into star pose and jump your legs back together in mountain. Then repeat 3-5 times.